Rivers re-run: House of Reps working for PDP’s advantage— Abe

The senatorial candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers South East in the forthcoming re-run elections, Senator Magnus Abe, has claimed the perceived interference of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara was tailored towards achieving a clear political advantage for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Magnus Abe

Abe described the intervention of the National Assembly members in Rivers State’s crisis as ill-timed and an attempt by the PDP to manipulate federal agencies and influence public opinion.

In a letter he personally signed and addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abe said: “I am in receipt of a letter of invitation from the House of Representatives Committee on the Army dated October 20, 2016, inviting me to attend a public hearing of a petition by the Civil Liberties Organization South-South zone against the Nigerian Army. Not surprisingly, Mr. Speaker, the petition is signed by Mr. Livingstone Wechie, the arrowhead of Governor Wike’s campaign of calumny against the APC in Rivers State. He is the Vice Chairman of the Rivers PDP campaign publicity team. He was the pilot of the infamous Integrity Group that sponsored the petition against Mr. Chibuike Amaechi in the Senate and he is also the plaintiff in the suit to stop the swearing-in of Victoria Nyeche, APC member-elect of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“I have read through the said petition and it is clear that the petition sponsored through your office is nothing but an ill-disguised attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party to manipulate federal agencies and influence public opinion in order to secure undue advantage for the PDP in the coming re-run elections. There has been a clear and consistent pattern of the Peoples Democratic Party which ordinarily should have been the minority party using the National Assembly to tilt the political scales in Rivers State in their favour at decisive moments.

“These hearings are a clear abuse of the constitutional powers of the House of Representatives and a violation of your oath of office wherein you swore to do right to all Nigerians. The Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot be a speaker for only PDP in Rivers State and this is made even more painful when we remember that you were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), the Party you are now using the enormous powers of your office to persecute.”